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Review Sat Oct 12 2013
Review: Franz Ferdinand @ the Vic, 10/10
Some bands are just effortlessly cool. They ooze charisma. They charm audiences immediately. They encapsulate all of the best reasons why people fantasize about being rock stars. And when they have the tunes to back it up, they're practically unstoppable, which leads us to Franz Ferdinand.
Since popping on the scene nearly ten years ago, the Glasgow band has had a lot of hits and very few misses. Thursday's sold out show at the Vic was in line with their career. They started out with "Bullet" from their latest Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action and moved along to old favorites "The Dark of the Matinée" and "Do You Want To" before circling back to the new album to play the single, "Right Action." Throughout the evening, it sounded as if many new songs were harder than the angular dance music that they've churned out in the past, but it couldn't stop a rabid crowd from wearing down their shoe soles and singing along at top volume.
From the time they walked on stage, the foursome was aggressive, confident and tight. They peppered three quarters of the new album in an hour and a half among an array of the hits. "Can't Stop Feeling" with Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" injected in the middle, along with the torrid "This Fire" were certainly highlights and the energy flowed, but still it's their breakout "Take Me Out" that brought the house down and electrified the Vic - even in the balcony. Oddly and unfortunately, though, it was the encore where they lost steam. A full band drum solo and a downtempo closer, "Goodbye Lovers & Friends" - an appropriately titled low-key sendoff, felt anticlimactic. But taking the show down a grade for that misstep would be short-sighted since the 75 minutes preceding it was everything you could ever ask for at a rock show.
